Olivia De Havilland's first Oscar came for "To Each His Own."

After a one night stand with a pilot, De Havilland, a small town girl with intelligence and moral fortitude, finds herself in trouble.

Giving the child up is the most heart rendering thing imaginable to view.

Years later as the world enters World War 11, in a chance meeting, De Havilland meets the child, now a grown man and in the army as well.

Through the years, when they did meet, he could never imagine why she would cling to him.

With his wedding approaching, De Havilland attends it in London, where she now resides. When the son realizes who she is, he brought many a tear to the eye when he says, "May I have this dance, mother?"

Well done tear-jerker. A bold step in tackling the concept of illegitimacy; although, we saw this concept as early as 1932 in "The Sin of Madelon Claudet." Heroine Helen Hayes got an Oscar for that one as well. What does that tell you about Hollywood and socially controversial topics?

In blacked-out London during the blitz, Josephine "Jody" Norris (Olivia de Havilland) and Lord Desham are fire wardens. In a long flashback, she's a small town girl in America during the previous war. She turns down proposals from Alex Piersen and Mac Tilton. She falls for flyer Captain Bart Cosgrove who has come to town to sell War Bonds. She has a child out of wedlock after their one night together. He dies in the war and she conceives a plan to adopt her own child without revealing his scandalous origin. The plan goes wrong and the baby is adopted by Corinne and Alex Piersen. Jody struggles to stay close to her own child.

Olivia de Havilland would win an Oscar for her performance. She plays a fascinating character. I expected her to be a victim and be the nanny for the boy all her life but that's not what happens. The turns are great drama and very compelling. It turns a weepy little melodrama into something truly touching. I would have liked a different final ending but Hollywood needs the one that is given.

This is the first film that Olivia DeHavilland received an Oscar for and you can sure see why. While the part did not call for the fullest range of emotions, she was able to crying and weep most convincingly and I really found myself sucked into the film by her. Olivia played a "Stella Dallas-like" self-sacrificing mother that tugs at your heart--doing anything she could for her little boy. At times, it was ALMOST too melodramatic and weepy, but the writers deftly skirted the edges and this resulted in a wonderful and engaging film that only the hardest-hearted people would avoid.

The story itself was pretty racy for 1946, as the main theme involved an illegitimate child borne by DeHavilland. The father was a WWI pilot and he was lost in combat, so it was up to DeHavilland to do what was best for the child--even if it meant letting go. Oddly, the part she played was perhaps too self-sacrificing, as she never really had much of a life--this made it a bit hard to believe, but this can be forgiven.